doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com ring waxed fiber wads

I punch my own hard felt wads and dip them in equal parts of melted beeswax and tallow. I melt in a double boiler setup (an old soup can in a pan of water) and give the wads a very quick dip of about a second in the lube. The lube will soak in very quickly with just a quick dip, if you leave them in too long the lube will want to build up on the outside of the wad as well. After you do it a couple times you will get the hang of it.

The mix I use is quite stiff, and will not melt out and wet the powder unless you leave them in a very hot car for a period of time. If you want a softer lube (i.e. lower melting point) use less wax, and/or replace the tallow with a oil of some kind.

I have read from several seemingly reliable sources that a 50/50 mix of mutton tallow/beeswax was right up among the top of the heap of good black powder lubes, be it for shotgun wads, patched balls for a rifle or whatever. What kind of tallow do you use FlintFan. As I recall it was stated one of the primary reasons for the mutton tallow was it didn't go rancid as quickly as some other tallows more so than actual effectiveness.

I get my mutton tallow from Dixie Gun Works. They are very convenient because you can buy it in small quantities, 1 pint containers if I remember correctly.

The only way that I recall hearing for DIY edge-lubing wads was to roll them through a pan with a shallow layer of melted lube. If the wads are soft enough, one can stick one or more on something like a hat pin which then serves as a handle.

As I write this, another technique came to mind, for applying a small amount of lube to a cushion wad. One forms a small groove around the circumference and hand-apply softened lube into the groove. IIRC, this was done by muzzle-loading shooters who needed a modicum of lube but wanted to minimize the mess involved with handling a more fully-covered wad with each shot.

Regards,
Joel